UK parliament won't get immediate vote on foreign aid cut

LONDON (AP) — British lawmakers failed to force a vote Monday on the government's cut to foreign aid spending, but may get a chance to debate the contentious decision on Tuesday.

The non-partisan speaker in the House of Commons, Lindsay Hoyle, ruled that an attempt to reverse the decision via an amendment to a bill going through parliament was not appropriate, saying it's “outside the scope of the bill."

However, he rebuked the government for not having put to a vote its decision last November to cut the proportion of national income set aside for foreign aid from 0.7% to 0.5%. The original target had been enshrined in legislation.

He encouraged lawmakers to bring forward a separate motion for an emergency debate on Tuesday and said the government should bring the decision to a vote soon.

“I expect that the government should find a way to have this important matter debated and to allow the House formally to take an effective decision,” he said.

Lawmakers from all sides, including members of Prime Minister Boris Johnson's Conservative Party, are angry at the cut.

Critics, which include Johnson’s predecessor Theresa May and former Cabinet ministers Andrew Mitchell and David Davis, say the cut will lead to hundreds of thousands of avoidable deaths in developing nations and damages Britain's international reputation. They also say it undermines Johnson in the run-up to his hosting of a Group of Seven leaders summit on Friday.

Mitchell, a former international development secretary who led the rebellion, said he was confident that the numbers were there to overturn the government's 85-seat majority in the House of Commons. He said the government was treating the House of Commons with “disrespect.”

Britain's Treasury has argued that the cut was necessary to free up cash to...